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Undead
Back to Races ---- Buildings ''Deathkeep'' Upgrades keep to level 2, 3, 4, and 5; death keep allows night keep which makes it nighttime. Trains the undead titan: * Lord Bane ''Boneyard'' Upgrades melee attacks and armor. Trains artillery units: * Bone Catapult ''Black Libary'' Upgrades spells and allows Liche. ''Graveyard'' Trains basic undead infantry and cavalry: * Skeleton * Zombie * Skeleton Cavalry Units ''Zombie - Undead Builder'' The builder and miner of the undead. It doesn't build very fast, it has a slow movement speed but it is fairly cheap, can transmit diseases and is one of the more tougher builders around. ''Skeleton - Undead Basic Infantry'' Being the basic fighter of the undead, its true strength lies in its ability to instantly upgrade to a stronger unit, provided you have the tech and resources to do so. On its own it is worthless, although it has some merit in overwhelming arrow towers since it is nearly invulnerable to piercing attacks. ''Wight - Undead Basic Infantry'' This little sword-and-shield guy is the first level-up from a skeleton, and it is much, much stronger. It can withstand quite some of punishment for a tier one creature due to its resistance to slashing damage. When fully upgraded with damage and armor upgrades, it even has some use in the late game as cheap meatshields. Watch out for crushing damage dealing enemies, though. A group of these can dominate early on in the game. Can be upgraded to the Liche and Slayer Knight. ''Wraith - Undead Basic Floating Infantry'' This floating, ice damage dealing creature is the other upgrade possible from the skeleton and would be nearly useless if not for one very interesting ability: if it slays an enemy, it leeches all its experience! Yes, that includes heroes. So use an army of these (costs some crystal) and hunt down the enemy hero, and you have an instant level 20 juggernaut at your command! Can be upgraded to the stronger and faster ghost. The biggest drawback of the wraith is its vulnerability to physical attacks, at a time in the game when most attacks are physical. So be careful with them. Luckily, they can outrun most enemies. ''Shadow - Undead Advanced Floating Infantry'' The upgrade from the wraith, these are faster, stronger, and more resilient. They retain the ability to leech the experience from slain enemies and they can also attack fliers. They deal cold damage and can freeze an enemy upon a critical. Shadows really shine when an enemy has done an XP upgrade on its creatures (for example, the Fey). When they kill a creature, they will level up and heal immediately, making them very difficult to kill. ''Skeleton Cavalry- Undead Cavalry'' The first thing that stands out with Skeleton Cavalry is their production cost. Aside from Skeletons (which can be raised for free by Liches), they have no resource competition with any other Undead unit. This allows you to field them without compromising the upgrading of your other units. Stat wise, they're not too shabby and also possess a great ability. All this makes Skeleton Cavalry a really decent unit. The only issue they bring is that they count as 2 units for the population cap, something which Undead are always struggling with due to their lack of need for buildings. ''Lich - Undead Advanced Missile Unit'' The Advanced Missile Units of the Undead, these guys are the damage dealers of your army. They do not have much hit points and are vulnerable to crushing damage (just like most of the Undead), but their damage output makes up for their weakness. Flinging fireball after fireball, four or five of these can demolish an entire base. A group of Slayer Knights supported by a couple of these is almost unstoppable. They can also summon skeletons from fallen soldiers around them, that can then be upgraded to more advanced soldiers just like any skeleton. This allows you to instantly replace your losses (if you have the resources), even if you don't have a Necromancer Hero. ''Slayer Knight - Undead Advanced Infantry'' A Wight can be upgraded to the Slayer Knight, which will cost you a lot of metal but will net you the first of the Undead Knights. They are very strong but watch out for crushing damage dealing enemies! Especially Catapults are the bane of these creatures, since they are very slow and thus have difficulties moving out of the way. In early tier three, have two of these support a group of Wights and Liches for their status effects on the enemy. In the end game, have a group of these and a group of Liches, then, when the Slayer Knight is badly wounded, transform him into a fully healed Doom Knight to surprise the enemy! ''Doom Knight - Undead Elite Infantry'' The champion of Undead forces, the Doom Knight, is a sight to behold. Slow but unstoppable, it will cleave through wave after wave of enemy forces, bringing terror and death. It is resistant to slashing and piercing (and it is not vulnerable to crushing, like the other Undead), so it can hold out for a long time. With upgrades, it is about as powerful as the Minotaur king and can be upgraded to do triple damage against Humans. Bring a couple of Liches for support and you will have the ultimate Undead army. However, a Catapult's stunning attacks will render the Doom Knight useless. ''Bone Catapult'' Bone Catapults are an inferior variant of the standard Catapult. The main reason is their range. While range 12 would be great for any other unit, for a siege weapon it's poor. This means that it has trouble out-ranging even un-garrisoned towers, and with only 60 damage, it wont be able to pull off much damage before said tower makes short work of the Bone Catapult's low HP. If you want to raze buildings of all types, then Liches are the units for the job - not to mention that you'll be fielding them anyway due to how much of an important role they play with Undead. ''Vampire - Undead General'' The general of the Undead, this unit is the only non-flying Undead unit that has to be bought at a building instead of upgraded from the skeleton. Its weakness to piercing attacks makes it fragile, however its vampirism ability makes it effective at dueling other units. Dragonliche - Elite Flier ''Lord Bane - Undead Titan'' Strategy Overall The Undead are a very potent and unique race in Warlords Battlecry 3. The Undead's units tend to be superior to most other race's, but they may suffer from economical problems due to the units' high expense. Despite this, the Undead's presence on the map can be immediately felt, with hundreds of almost Piercing-immune units and the ability to instantly counter anything fielded at them via the morph ability. Additionally, the Undead have access to amongst the best research combinations in the game - they not only get the very powerful and easily accessed Dark Mithril upgrade, but they also get access to a massive amount of various wizardly researches for a spellcasting hero. All in all, if the Undead can get a stable footing in the early game, their forces can be amongst the most fearsome available in WBC3. ''The Race'' Units The undead are a very unique race in that most units are not bought from buildings, but instantly upgraded from skeletons which can mean that the player needs to do a lot of resource-heavy micromanagement. This has a lot of implications for the way that the race is played. Most notably, it allows the player to send Skeletons into an opponent's base, then upgrade them instantly to fit whatever will counter the opponent the most. To get started, an Undead player's economy will need to be sorted due to the high costs of morphing Skeletons. Gold should be a reasonably high priority in the early game simply to create more Zombies, construct more buildings and upgrade the keep. Once gold is no longer an issue, Metal and then Crystal should be heavily invested in. This will allow the player to create the Undead's army - Wights, Slayer Knights and Doom Knights require Metal and Wraiths, Shadows and Liches require Crystal. The other two resources can be invested into Skeleton Riders should the enemy use Crushing damage. If the opponent is playing as the Empire or another race which would be challenged by Piercing-resistant units, it may be a possibility to Skeleton-rush them from the start of the game - which makes their arrow towers pointless. Wights or Wraiths are the first units the Skeleton can upgrade into. Wraiths access to the very powerful Cold damage type. Since they are resistant to all Elemental damage types and vulnerable to all Physical, they should be used when the opponent is using almost nothing but Elemental damage types. Otherwise, Wights should be used for their far greater physical toughness. Shadows are the upgraded version of Wraiths. They cost a massive amount of resources to obtain when compared to Wraiths and provide no additional function. Considering this cost and the comparative power-up they receive, Shadows should rarely be used. Skeleton Riders should never be underestimated. They deal a high amount of damage and have a lot of Speed. If the player has spare Gold and Stone and if the opponent is using a lot of Crushing damage, Skeleton Riders are a necessity. Liches are one of the most valuable Undead units available. They are capable of single-handedly razing an opponent's base. Additionally, Liches can raise an army of Skeletons around them - all of which can then be morphed into anything the Undead player needs. Liches should nearly always be a necessity to any Undead army as their unique abilities cannot easily be replicated by any other Undead unit. Should the player require a resilient front line to hold back the opponent, Slayer Knights and Doom Knights should more than suffice. Both are very resistant to almost all forms of damage and both inflict Chaos upon enemies, negating their Armour. Should the power be needed, Doom Knights are amongst the most fearsome of units in the game. Doom Knights are incredibly tough, are capable of attacking air units, inflict Chaos, have very high Combat and a large amount of Damage (which is upgradable via Weaponsmith and Dark Mithril). Bone Catapults are largely pointless to the Undead, however, if the enemy is vulnerable to Crushing damage or if they are using hordes of units, they can be very powerful due to high long ranged splash damage. Vampires can be incredibly useful at the start of a game thanks to the potential scouting ability of the summoned Bats. In 1.03.24, Vampires have no vampirism ability, but are still formidable units with very high amounts of Piercing damage. Unfortunately for the Undead, these generals are very difficult to produce as they can only be created at the level 5 keep building, unlike most other races. Vampires should be well protected when used for conversion, and if the player already has most of the map, that Crystal should be used for units such as Liches instead. In patch version 1.03, the ability to upgrade your units into stronger ones can be exploited when you wait until the units are nearly defeated. This is because upgrading will heal the unit completely, but will perserve its experience. This adds some micromanagement, but is a very powerful tactic to use with units such as a Slayer Knight. Buildings Graveyards are the first buildings any Undead player will construct. These can function as Zombie builders and Skeleton builders until the player gets access to Gravestones. Barrows give access and upgrade Wraiths and Shadows and Boneyards upgrade every Undead unit and give access to Wights. The Dark Mithril upgrade within the Boneyard should be a high priority as it completely changes the way Undead units can be used - alongside the Barrow upgrades, Dark Mithril allows Wraiths and Shadows to be used against even physical damage units. The Altar of Shadows (accessed at keep level 3) allows the Shadow to be created and provides incredibly powerful Summon Mana research for the hero (if the hero is a spellcaster). Cages allow and upgrade Slayer Knights and Doom Knights, though the latter will also require a Black Library (which provides very powerful upgrades for the Liches such as Staff of Damnation and Liche King). Broods give the Undead Bats at level 1, Harpies at level 2 and Dragonliches and Frost Dragons at level 3. Lastly, Undead Towers are somewhat resilient, but suffer from Electrical Damage which is difficult to hit enemies with. Should any defence be required, it is recommended to change that damage type unless the enemy is using a plethora of Electrical-vulnerable units. ''Heroes'' The first thing that comes to mind for an Undead hero should be the Necromancer. Being able to summon Zombies to instantly fill your mines can be very useful for the Undead economy. Alongside this, the ability to summon upgradable Skeletons can be used to instantly create an army, anywhere your hero is on the map. Undead can't trade for resources and they need a lot of Metal. This can be a big problem, but it can be circumvented by having a hero with Transmute from the Alchemy spell list. An Undead Alchemist can fill this roll, but it has one major disadvantage: it has no access to the Necromancy spell sphere until level 10. However, access to both Alchemy and Necromancy on an Undead hero will augment an already powerful race. Counters * Catapults are an Undead player's worst nightmare. There are really no good counters to Catapults other than Harpies and Dragons and the former require air support anyway since they can't attack air units. * Nearly all Undead are vulnerable to crushing damage. This makes the Orc race rather exceptionally capable of defeating the Undead (particularly with Ogres since Ogres resist the Liche's fire attacks as well as dealing crushing damage itself). * The Undead have a reasonable struggle towards the middle of the game mainly due to the massive Gold requirement of upgrading the Deathkeep. All buildings cost ~ 100 Gold except the gravestone and pretty much all units cost at least a bit of Gold, so it's a serious issue. Depending upon your hero class (Alchemist for example), this may or may not be a problem however. Lore